David McIntosh: A genuine voice for Congress

Interesting race: David McIntosh is running for an open seat in the Fifth District

One of the most interesting races in America will take place on May 8 in the Indiana Republican primary. David McIntosh, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001, is running for an open seat in the Fifth District.

Since the District is Republican, the winner of the primary is almost certain to win the seat in November.

Back in 1991, I worked with David McIntosh at the White House. He stood up for ordinary Americans in a city where ordinary Americans had little support.

I was working for President George H. W. Bush on the Domestic Policy Council and David was leading Vice President Dan Quayle's Competitiveness Council. We fought together for key issues such as regulatory reform and reducing the burden of government.

As our economy sputters, these issues are as vital today as they were 20 years ago.

Then, the American economy was suffering. Businesses across America and in Indiana were shutting down. Those staying in business were not hiring. The economy wallowed in recession.

The vast majority in Congress had a simple prescription: tax more, spend more, regulate more, and make more decisions in Washington. Like 17th century quacks carrying jars of leaches to suck the blood from an injured patient, the congressional majority marched ahead with its wrong-headed medicine, oblivious to the harm it caused. Powerful interests supported the Congressional majority.

History: I worked with David McIntosh at the White House when I was working on the Domestic Policy Council

A bad economy and bad economic policy hurts ordinary Americans the most. The salesman, the teacher, the truck driver, the store clerk, the receptionist, the factory worker: these are the hard-working ordinary Americans who are harmed by bad policies in Washington.

A few voices stood up to the congressional majority. Most were well-known, powerful voices. But in all of Washington, no voice rang more clearly and more consistently than that of the young man from Indiana, David McIntosh.

When anyone asked him how he knew the Congressional prescription of more taxes, more spending, and more regulation was wrong, David McIntosh had a simple answer: common sense.

The powerful interests in Washington scoffed at him and his Competitiveness Council. They said he was too young and inexperienced and powerless to stop the congressional majority intent on more taxes, more spending, more regulation, and more power in Washington.

But a miraculous event happened. David McIntosh and his Competitiveness Council succeeded beyond all expectations. As the result of his efforts, job-destroying environmental regulations were delayed. Other job-destroying regulations never happened. The congressional majority and their powerful backers were stunned.

When Mr. McIntosh ran for Congress from Indiana in 1994, you can be sure that the powerful interests that supported the Congressional majority were dead set against him. But when he was elected, the new Republican majority created a subcommittee on regulatory oversight just so that David McIntosh could have the rare distinction of being a freshman with a chairmanship. Imagine that: a freshman congressman from Indiana chairing a committee to reduce federal regulation.

But keeping a lid on overregulation was not all that David did. He put his sharp mind to work solving some of our nation's most difficult problems, such as our ballooning deficit and our broken welfare system. With David’s support, the federal budget deficit shrank from a deficit of $164 billion when he entered Congress in 1995 to a surplus of $128 billion when he left in 2001.

If there were a movie made about Mr. McIntosh’s times in Congress, Jimmy Stewart, if he were alive, should be the lead. No one could infuriate and confound the Washington establishment more.

Now Mr. McIntosh is running for Congress again. I know this: entrenched interests in Washington still want to tax more, to spend more, to regulate more, and to make more decisions in Washington. Those interests do not want David McIntosh and his values in Congress again. Soon, we will find out what the good folks of Indiana have to say about that.